The Tour de Fleece begins today!

Good morning and happy Saturday! The Tour de France begins today and that means Ravelry’s Tour de Fleece begins today too. For anyone not familiar with that the Tour de Fleece, it’s a spin along that takes place at the same time as the Tour de France. Spinners on Ravelry form their own teams, and on each of the days that the cyclists ride in the Tour de France, spinners in the Tour de Fleece spin yarn for their team and post daily pictures of their progress. There are challenge days for the spinners that correspond with the challenge days for the cyclists, rules for each team, and even prizes.

As I have been for the past several years, I am a member and co-captain of Team Spinning Bunny, headed up by my friend Susan of Susan’s Spinning Bunny. One of the team’s rules is that you use Spinning Bunny fiber, or use one of Jim’s wheels or spindles. Each year Susan comes up with a special colorway available on most of the fibers that she dyes and sells. This year that colorway is Sea Nymph and I got mine in my favorite – BFL and silk!

My goal with this year’s TDF colorway is yardage. I want as much of it as I can get from this four ounces of fiber and I spent last night getting ready to do that. My Polonaise has a fresh drive band, empty bobbin, and oil in all the right places. I left the 25:1 ratio pulley on the flyer and set up in double drive which has made spinning the Superhero Rambouillet go quite nicely.

Most of my spinning time at my wheel will still be my 15 to 20 minutes every morning before work and whatever I can fit in on the weekends, so even four ounces of fiber can take a while. There will have to be more evening spinning, especially early on in the tour, to finish the Sea Nymph BFL and silk as quickly as I can because I would like to do another wheel project for the TDF and I picked this merino in a beautifully named colorway called My Very Own Sister (MVOS for short).

Once the Sea Nymph BFL is done and I have a good idea of how much of the MVOS merino I’ll be able to spin for the remainder of the TDF, I will add in some supported spindle spinning in the evenings using three supported spindles made by Jim. My Russian spindle skills are improving but I still need plenty more practice. I set aside the yak that I have been practicing with and will work on this beautiful white cashmere for my Tour de Fleece spinning. I have a little more proficiency with the low whorl supported and Tibetan style supported spindles, but I still may not finish all of this cashmere before the end of the tour.

Most of today’s spinning for the tour will be this afternoon. An early vet appointment for a routine checkup and vaccination for one of my dogs and other morning appointments with my dear spouse and his sisters to plan a memorial service for their father takes precedence today. If I get myself together quickly enough I may get a little spinning started this morning, so I’m off to do just that.

Have a great weekend everyone!